I actually try not to use build/buy defaults but now that I know cardinal red is in the picture, I have to re-think this!Actually just as a simmer who likes to share lots, build/buy defaults seem a little problematic... but just putting them in a folder... that can easily be removed... if I open the game to build... well, did you see how quickly I changed my mind?!?

I already told Kiri but I'd like to help if I can, just let me know Very excited about the project!

What about assignment by collections?Like I could do the base game Moroccan pieces for example, using the prioritized woods but having a little freedom for fabric patterns? Maybe just "colorify" or "colorize" the original maxis textures. Those are GIMP words, I don't know what PS calls them. Or do you want solid cushions or stripe-on-stripe like Kiri mentioned somewhere?I'm happy to help with anything, it doesn't have to be the Moroccan set and it doesn't have to be by collection, that's just kind of how I work

I also thought the project might need a prioritized metals palette, maybe one for plumbing porcelain, I guess anything non-fabric and non-wood

We should discuss how we want to do the "specialty collection" pieces, like the Moroccan ones or the Medieval ones, etc. I'd be happy to go with our wood priorities and leeway on fabrics to go with the theme of the collection. Shasta, I'd be happy to let you go ahead with that whole collection.

also @ Shasta, I really like the metals you've been using for your lamps and would be happy to use them along with the one I use all the time which is darker than pewter, but not as dark as iron. Since I've already used it a lot, I'd really love it if we could make it priority 1.

As for collections, I'm currently messing about with BG seating and surfaces, so I'm deep in Value, Club, Colonial, and Country, and have discovered that it's really critical to replace the TXMTs as well as the textures to get a consistent look to the pieces. Since they'll all need to be done, I'm using extracted TXMTs from jonesi's blanket for fabric and buggybooz's kitchen basic for woods. Appliances should have a consistent one and so should plumbing porcelain and any metals (gold, silver, etc. usually have different ones to they can use different stdMatEnvCubes).

With the TXMTs replaced, there's a really good match here:

Before, the club sofas had strange blue and yellow overtones, and the desks were nowhere near the same color, which was especially apparent on the light colors.

@Kiri, Since Shasta really likes cardinal red, perhaps we should move it up in priority. Currently, it's number 6, but I'd be willing to move it up as far as 4, if you'd think that's okay. I use it a lot, I just wasn't sure how popular/useful others would find it which is why it's at 6. At 4, it will be on just about everything.

First of all, that pewter texture is beautiful! I love that it's right in between a silver and a black, so versatile! I hope it's the first choice for anything metal

And please don't move cardinal red on my account! I think inkwash grey and toffee gold should stay right where they are, they are just as versatile as that pewter and will go with so many things, cardinal will show up plenty as the 6th color.

And the preview of what you've done looks fabulous! (LOL at the yard full of furniture, who doesn't have about twenty of those kind of lots?) Is that your leather texture on the club sofa?

I'm afraid I need a little more info about TXMTs and matching them to the blanket? I'm familiar with editing TXMTs but how does the blanket come into it and does the blanket have more than one TXMT? I love how smart you are to know this and to know about stdMatEnvCubes, I love that I might get to learn it too.

I'll wait to see what Kiri thinks about this and that. I actually like a lot of the original textures, it's the unattractive and/or non-matching colors that EAxis applied to them that frustrates me.

Shasta, TXMTs are Material Definitions and every texture has one. It tells the game how shiny to make the object, what kind of reflection to give it, whether transparency is enabled, and often has MatEnvCubes that give it a golden or silvery or bluish sheen. I'm not an expert on these, more like someone stumbling in a dim closet, occasionally figuring out what something is or does

I decided that rather than trying to deal with the completely non-matching TXMTs of EA items (two identical textures will look very different if the TXMTs of the objects are different), I would give all matching fabric defaults the same one. Since lots and lots of people recolor jonesi's blanket, having the plain fabrics in the game have the same "shininess" and color as the blanket will ensure that blanket-repository items will match our defaults. Anything made of leather or shiny fabric will get a different one (but all leather will get the SAME one, etc, unlike EA has done)

I decided to do the same thing for woods, and I chose buggybooz's Kitchen Basic counter's TXMT because I like its degree of "shininess" and lots of people have recolored it.

I have extracted these resources and will post them along with a little tutorial on how to replace one TXMT with another. I was surprised at how easy it was. Now you can just find an object with the kind of "shininess" you want your recolor to match, extract and replace, and your new recolor will match perfectly. When I think of how much time I spent trying to get colors to match in game and failing, or struggling with shiny object I didn't want to be shiny....

In the past, I've found that just manipulating the 3 coefficients is enough to set it right -

stdMatDiffCoef: n,n,nstdMatEmissiveCoef: n,n,nstdMatSpecCoef: n,n,n

where all the n's are a number between 0 and 1.

I believe - although it has been a very long time ago so I could be very wrong - that these coefficients control the Diffusive, Emissive and Specular coefficient.

Mathematics of LightingHave a look at this article, because it will make sense from the picture examples in the specific article.

But basically - The emissive coefficient - 0,0,0 leaves the colour of the object as is. You can change the colour by adapting these values from your RGB I've found by dividing your RGB numbers by 255.An interesting object to look at to see how this works - Sandy's Ethnic Bedroom - the glass candle holders and the lotus. Neither of them have texture images that come with the recolour, yet you can modify the colour to any colour in the colour wheel by modifying the TXMT.

(Download - its up at SpG but you need to be a member - so I'm attaching it here so you can look at it to see the difference.)

The other two also effect the colour because it adds the highlights and shadows, and the shininess.

So yeah. Basically what Kate says is exactly right - and here's the science behind it. (Because I am a science geek).

Okley dokley - tomorrow I'm going to be a bit quiet, and get the Wallpaper-paint templates made up in our woods, AL-Friendly and non-ALFriendly versions, and post them up.

I'll also post up the textures from Michelle, and the templates from Shasta.

Now. When we're doing the paint - do you want to use the linen fabric texture for the paint, or the colour as a fill? (I think I'd prefer a shrunk version of the linen - but I'm open to suggestions). Or do you want to do a noise-added version like these ones. These ones also have a 5% gradient to do a play on light - but I don't think that would be suitable for ours.

1. Plain Colour Fill2. Linen Fabric3. noise-added version.

Personally? I prefer 2, because it will be way easier to match the colours that way - but it's up to you.

That's exactly it - it's doesn't appear completely matte, but it doesn't have a noticeable texture. um - let me post up a full size (that's a 50% version) with a just a fill next to it to make sense.

In fact - what I'll do is post up all three so it's clearer what the choices are.

That's types 2, 1, 3As you can see - they're all the same colour - but the ones at either end, add a little diffusion so it's not matte. Do you remember simorphor from Sims1? She used to do that with her walls, and I loved them so I did them for sims2. Of course that was back in 2004, and I'm not attached to the process now. It has a slight gradient from top to bottom, to kind of work on the idea of light coming from above, and there's a noise of 5% added to give it it's not quite colour-fill difference. It does however seem darker (as does the linen texture) because it has the textural details which scatter the light, and you'll notice if you look at it for a while, your eyes tend to move over the wallpaper, rather than just look in the same place - that's because there's things for your eyes to just perceive. The Linen texture does this too, but it's more obvious.

(and to be honest? It's easier to match colours with the same underlying texture).

Hey! I'm still interested in doing the Moroccan collection, is there a time frame we're shooting for?That collection is full of exceptions If I end up guessing wrong on things, please feel free to ask me to change it - no ego! Or you can change it if I'm just not getting it - no ego There's a lot of different metal for the Moroccan lighting, what other colors are we using besides the antique tin?